Lars: Let me get Jay on from Portland. Jay, you're a pediatrician. Youwant to weigh in on the conversation, please?

Dr. Jay Rosenbloom: I do. I, actually, as a pediatrician do understand whyparents are confused, why they're upset. You know what? Parents wantwhat's best for their child. They want to be their child's advocate and wein the medical community have not done a great job of good communications,of listening to their concerns. The bottom line is, in the end, weactually do know the science and that vaccines are much safer than thealternative, that is not vaccinating. Or else, we wouldn't do it. I'm thefather of three children and all of my kids have had their vaccines. ButI do understand where parents' frustration has come. But there are peopleout there who say, "Well until the science agrees with my theory, I'm notgoing to listen, because you're wrong. And that's not the way scienceworks. If people want to know, is it safe, then let's look at it. Let'slook at the history and say, oh my goodness, 500 fewer kids die frommeasles a year now with the vaccine than without. So when we look at thosethings, we see that the vaccines saves thousands of lives with very, verylittle risk. Otherwise, we wouldn't do it. But I do understand whyparents are frustrated and confused.

Lars: Well, is it because they're adopting a standard, like the one I wastalking about that the FDA has, an unrealistic standard that they don'tapply anywhere else in their lives. You know, the mom who would put herkids in the car to drive to the grocery store, even though you could pointout, "Mom, by putting your kids in the car for a trip to the grocerystore, instead of leaving them home with the older child, they're probablymore likely to die. Because, every time you take a trip in a car, there'sa statistical likelihood or statistical chance they will get hit and bekilled. And yet, people don't live their lives that way. They know it'snot that likely that they will be killed on the way to the grocery store,so they go. And then they go to the doctor's office and they say, "I'mnot taking that medicine, doc, or giving it to my kids until it'sabsolutely proved that it cannot do them harm." And proving that negativeis awfully tough.

Dr. Jay Rosenbloom: Well, it's impossible. You can't prove a negative. Youcan't prove that something doesn't cause something else, even if it's onein a million. And I completely agree with you, that it's like getting inthe car only with this: So, driving to the grocery store doesn't havehealth benefits, whereas the vaccines prevent horrible diseases. I've seenchildren die from some of these diseases that we're trying to prevent andit is so tragic and preventable.

Lars: Doc, I'm glad for the endorsement of the idea because that's all Icare about. And when I saw this, that the company had fired these people,I thought, well, good for the company having the guts to say, if youaren't going to get the kind of flu shot that will protect our patientsfrom you having the flu or make it less likely for you to get the flu,then we're not going to employ you. I actually think it was a courageousmove on the part of the company. Doctor, thank you for the call. ###